"This can't be gay, there are no protoss here!"
-Dr.Zchivago
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| Terran vs. Toss in the Dire Straights | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 11/02/99 08:11 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 3, Max: 7, Min: 6
Lifetime Rating for Celedor: 6.6667 |   |
This game is one of the better games I've played in my Starcraft career.
DIRE STRAIGHTS
I'm sure most of you are familiar with Dire Straights, and seeing as I have no images, nor prior experience with such, will leave images out. This is my first battle report, but hopefully not my last. :)
It was a set-race game... I dunno what got into me, I was talking (wondering actually) about what a Terran would do in an island map vs. Toss, when my opponent said "Now's your chance to learn -- pick Terran!" I reluctantly accede, to his pleased chortle. I do however, assure him that I would try my best to make it a good game.
I quickly send my SCVs to mine, while wondering what exactly Terran did against Protoss on island maps. After racking my head a bit, I decided to go for a VULTURE DROP . I made a barracks after the first depot, and floated in to bottom left, in an effort to scout the enemy. This was quickly followed by a factory and starport, and a second factory. By the time I had a dropship, I had mines researched and 3 Vultures eager to go hunting. So they did.
The floating Barracks had found no trace of Protoss in either the Bottom Right or Bottom Left, so by process of elimination, I sent the dropship to Top Left. The vultures unloaded in the bare portion of the island, and drove straight towards the probe line. Unfortunately, the vultures ran head-on into 3 dragoons and a zealot. Undaunted, the Vultures continued on, and began hitting probes, while mining the area between the Nexus and the minerals. To no avail, poor micromanagement ended up with 2 vultures annoyedly trying to run the probes down, in an effort to plant mines, while the third pounded futilely at the large dragoons. The vultures died, taking only a probe with them. But they managed to spot a Robotics Facility, with a Support Bay coming in. That told volumes -- Reaver Drop .
I had three wraiths at the time patrolling the skies for any expansion attempts. I had also floated a command center to the island below mine during the conflict, not to mention several vultures. The dropship on the way back had seen a pylon warping in on the island between both our bases -- a prelude to a future expansion. But I had lost the initiative, there were only moments left before the shuttle arrived, carrying it's deadly cargo. The vultures frantically deployed spidermines throughout the island, in an effort to stop the drop.
Despite that, he managed to find the only place where no mines had been placed -- behind the mineral fields.. DoH! There were mines between the CC and the patches, but none behind! Two Reavers unloaded, and began releasing scarabs. Fortunately, scarabs have to navigate through those minerals, and they aren't very good at doing that. They exploded harmlessly on the ground where several SCVs stood but seconds before. The Wraiths were immediately recalled to deal with the threat, and a newly constructed tank entered siege mode to begin firing upon the reavers. The Reavers, annoyed, approached the tank with the intention of showing them who was boss. But the first one ran into some mines, and was severely damaged enough for the tank to finish it off. The second one immediately entered the shuttle, which approached the SCVs, fearfully huddling around a Supply Depot. The Reaver Unloaded... The SCVs began a panicked flight, when the sounds of burst laser fire erupted! Quickly the wraiths began to dispatch the reaver before any further damage was done.
We now each had two fully operational expansions, and had each performed marginally succesful attacks. (His was more succesful, seeing as it deprived me of some valuable mining time). I then chose to create another Command Center in my expansion, with the intent of floating it over to the Bottom Right Starting point. The Wraiths continued their search patterns throughout the map, before running into a group of corsairs. Cloaking, the Wraiths took a few potshots at the corsairs before the lagging observer arrived. The wise squad leader decided to retreat in the face of superior Protoss Technology.
Back at the base, 4 Armories were being constructed with the intent of developing new weapons to fight the Protoss. The game meandered on, and we both expanded once more, I took the bottom right, while he took the island below his starting point. I was still puzzled as to how to win this game -- his expansions were heavily fortified with Photon Cannons, making it quite difficult for me to conduct any sort of assault. Then finally it occurred to me, that tanks could shoot over the water. One of the tanks in my main unsieged and rolled over to the edge of the island, and began pounding on the cannons on the other side, with a floating bay to spot for it (as well as cover it). It was going well, when suddenly a carrier moved into sight, and several tiny interceptors swarmed about the tank, (unfortunately, the Eng. bay had to leave a portion of the tank uncovered in order to spot), quickly destroying it.
There was only one carrier at this point, and I had 12 2/2 Wraiths. It would soon be joined by more of it's brethren but at this point, I had nothing to worry about. Two new tanks flew over to the edge of the island... This time guarded by the Wraiths, and started pounding on the harvesting probes. The Carrier returned, only this time with two more buddies, as well as corsair escort. I can't quite recall what exactly happened, but the cloaked wraiths managed to kill a carrier, and chase the rest into the back of the island. Seeing that only one more salvo was required to snag another carrier, I decided to go for it. Only to be met by several cannons constructed at the rear portion of the island, and the carrier being recharged by a battery. The Salvo was released, but rammed into regenerated shields. The carrier lived, and sadly, with detection, the corsairs and cannons ended the lives of the valiant wraith pilots. Now I had no way to resist the remaining carriers.
Luckily, the Protoss commander had a higher opinion of me, and thought that I still had a reserve force up my sleeve. He opted to build up more before trying his might against mi(puny)ne. The time was not wasted, a third factory was erected at the bottom right expansion, and charon boosters were in development, as a new series of Goliath went into production.
At this point, the minerals on my island had been depleted, and seeing as my reserves were scarce, I opted to lift off the CC in my main, and send it over to Bottom Left (after a quick scan to show that it wasn't under Observation) I was in a bit of a predicament -- I was still ahead in upgrades due to my 4 armories, but that was that. He had the capability to strike anywhere, so I had to be prepared for him anywhere. It was either abandon some, or divide my forces. While I was still thinking, he struck, dropping some reavers into my first expansion. There were no forces there, so the Center lifted off, and the SCVs ran to the edge of the island in a futile attempt to save their lives.
The question was answered for me. I was fairly confident I could defend my two other bases, using Valkyries to augment any defense, so I loaded 2 dropships full of Goliaths and sent them over to Bottom Right to supplement their defense while the factory there built up more. As soon as the Dropships left, Several carriers struck my main.. The numbers of Goliaths marched to withstand the mighty Protoss fleet, with the aid of 5 Valks... for a few seconds the air was filled with smoke as the trails of Halo-missiles and Charon Boosters illuminated the sky. Interceptors blocked out the sunlight, turning the battleground into a sort of disco dance floor. The Carriers proved too much, and thus begun a great exodus, as all the buildings begun to lift off and head in different directions. However, only 3 Carriers remained from the conflict.
The command center that had been sent off earlier had landed, and had a dropship waiting just on the outskirts of the island. 3 Corsairs were floating around -- so he had spotted my expansion attempt -- but their Neutron Flares could do nothing about it. I decided to drop the SCVs at some distance, and build several factories in order to protect this expansion. The dropship neared, but as it was unloading, the corsairs inexplicably veered away from their idle floating and opened fire on the dropships.. Only three SCVs managed to get off. Each with orders to build a factory. The shimmering air above the island, betrayed the observer that had gave away my SCV drop to the corsairs. The Carriers were thankfully blowing away the supply depots in my main, and chasing down the fleeing structures... Before my entire tech tree was demolished, I made a starport and a factory in my Bottom Right expansion -- my only operational base.
As the Carriers leisurely destroyed the rest of my main, the Protoss commander took this opportunity to communicate.
"Surrender, and spare yourself a humiliating defeat..."
Hmm.. Let's look at the picture here -- he had 2 fully operational expansions, his main was probably mined out by now, I had two,bottom right and bottom left, one of which was operational, but I also had a somewhat large stockpile of resources (around 2000), as well as full upgrades on both ship and vehicle -- he only had full ship, and no land upgrades.
He was on top, but I still had a definite fighting chance.
After having disposed of most everything in my main, the Carriers disappeared from view... Which left me wondering where they would strike next. Putting myself in the shoes of the Protoss commander, I decided on Bottom left, since the 3 Factories I had build had just come online and were beginning to produce goliaths. It was definitely the weaker expansion. Goliaths were quickly ferried to remedy the situation -- the orbiting Corsairs were chased away by new Goliaths from the 3 Factories.
Then once again, the Carriers struck where I did not expect -- Bottom right. Was this guy smart, or stupid? I wondered. The Goliaths doggedly marched towards the carriers, and began doling out their deadly Charon Missiles. The Carriers were supported by Disrupting Corsairs, but after superior micro (which more than made up for the pathetic ones earlier) the Carriers fell into retreat.
Once again the Protoss Commander messaged me, "Why do you stubbornly cling on to life, like a pathetic insect? Surrender or die!".
I was too busy ordering the construction of new defenses to reply. As soon as orders for more Goliaths were queued, I began scanning to see how much of the map he had, seeing as I had no way of fighting back. A scan on my previous expansion was very timely -- I saw a shuttle bringing in the the Reavers he used to kill it earlier! When the shuttle arrived, my goliaths were waiting, but they only managed to heavily damage the shuttle, without killing it. I Comsatted in the hopes of spotting the shuttle for one more shot, to see that it was idly floating in the furthest corner of the map, afraid to even try and sneak by. A new Valk ended the life of that shuttle.
Again I got the "Surrender or Die message.." This time I took it that he was unnerved by my lack of response, so I continued to leave his messages unanswered.
The next attack came in the form of several Dragoons and Dark Templar. Twin Autocannons easily pierced through the Dragoon Shields and shells, hey that's not right! Dragoons own Goliaths right? Upgrades help a lot after all! The Upgraded Goliaths managed to hold their own against the Dragoons, at least, until a very timely Siege Tank was built that laid waste to the remaining Dragoons.
Once again I scanned to check for more expansions, and once again I was lucky! A scan on the island above Bottom Left (his second expansion) showed that he had mined it out, but more importantly, two shuttles zooming in. Once again, the Goliaths were prepared for the drop, but a Reaver managed to land before the shuttles were dispatched. Everyone quickly fled the scene, leaving the first scarab to explode harmlessly against the Command Center. Two brave Goliaths volunteered to handle the Reaver and each took a single hit, before laying the Reaver to waste (those upgrades really DO help a lot).
"Argh! Why don't you just surrender and get it over with?"
While he was busily telling me how hopeless my situation had become, I took the opportunity to expand to Lower Middle. With 3 Dropships worth of Goliaths to Guard, as well as a fleet of 16 Valks. I pleasantly discovered that he had expanded to the island directly above mine and began using siege tanks to once again harrass his cannons and probes.
This time he meant business, and a MASSIVE carrier group moved in. With Corsair support. The Bottom Middle island is quite small, with not much room to maneuver in. Disruption definitely took it's toll, and the expansion was wrecked, reducing the carrier numbers by about a third. However, at this time I had around 150 supply worth of units, consisting of Goliaths, Valkyries, and a smattering of Tanks. Disruption would be the end of me. The Valkyries flew back for repairs.
Again he messaged me, "Do you want me to kill you now? Why don't you surrender?!"
I answered with silence. After waiting for a while, I realized that no attack was forthcoming soon. I guess the goliaths were too intimidating... On a hunch I scanned his main, to see it was only lightly defended. Loading 4 Dropships with Goliaths, I managed to navigate around his other expansions and land them on the main. The Carriers scrambled to protect the main, and that was the decisive battle. With a lot of room to navigate, Disruption proved to be annoying more than anything, and the Goliaths, with the help of Valkyries managed to destroy a good amount of
the carrier fleet. Hastily warped Dragoons ended the lives of the survivors, but without their seat of power, the Protoss had been temporarily crippled.
I expanded once again to Bottom Middle, and began sieging the island above me. I also dropped to another middle island in the hopes of securing it -- the minerals on both my bases were running dry -- and found several Cannons warping in. The Goliaths happily ate it all up, cannon, pylon, and probe.
The tanks had cleared the way for a drop, and 8 goliaths were dropped into his now only functioning expansion (the rest were mined out). EMP managed to take care of the Templars waiting, and the Goliaths blew away the fragile probes.
The Protoss Commander left, grumbling "Why didn't you surrender when I told you to?"
"Uhhh.. I did promise you it'd be a GG"
He didn't seem to agree.
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